You Caught Us All, Pokemon Go!

Pokémon. If the word doesn’t excite you to the core and doesn’t bring back a nostalgic episode, then you are probably too young or too old to read this post. Not that it’s a bad thing; but you practically missed a whole generation. One of literally millions of people all over the world who lived day and night hoping and dreaming of a world where you can befriend wild monsters, catch them in miniature Poke-balls and train them to fight battles with others. And believe me, those dreams are still alive in a lot of hearts!

Sounds insanely stupid right?

No problem, just give it a minute.

A week ago, those millions of dreams just became a (augmented) reality after decades of anticipation, 16-bit graphics, dozens of console games and tons of anime. These are the same people who were crazy about collecting sets of Pokémon trading cards 15 years ago. And literally hooked to Gameboy Consoles 10 years ago. We all thought back then, that the dream was too good to be true, till last week, when Niantic Labs materialized that world into our own. “Pokemon Go” an incredible journey that is going to ink itself into the millennials’ history books.

Pokemon Go brings back the original 150 pocket monsters into a gameplay that promises a real-world adventure where you can roam around the streets, parks and local landmarks to catch your favorite Pokemon and embark on a journey to catch `em all. Landmarks and popular buildings have become Pokemon Gyms and local coffee shops and ATMs have become Poke Stops. In the last 1 week, if you have not seen a hoard of people near popular landmarks, swiping their screens and clicking pictures of practically nothing; then your eyes where probably shut the whole time.

Just overnight, the app has become a sensational phenomenon, bringing back life to the decade old cult that was in hiding and revived a lost religion in itself . People are doing Poke Meetups and sharing tips on Pokemon whereabouts. The app is topping the Apple charts and have got 7.5 million users in matter of days, getting ahead of Tinder and Twitter. The app is also seeing $1.6 million daily revenue and an addition of $9 billion in market valuation of Nintendo – the creators of Pokemon world.

Being a millennial dominated world, Pokemon Go was destined to go viral. But, the developers did a brilliant job nailing the 4 elements of games: engagement, retention, virality and monetization. That’s not an easy feat. Only a few games in the history have managed similar success. The closest analogies are probably Minecraft and Candy Crush Saga, which also rocketed to not only the top of the App Store download charts, but also the top-grossing charts.

Read More on “How Did They Win: Catch `Em All like Pokemon Go” in our next post.

Our team’s hands on experience with the game has been hyper-realistic! People bumping into each other. Going into coffee shops to get poke balls and XP. Groups of strangers laughing, sharing tips and hanging out at landmarks. Pokemon Forums and Chats have been buzzing 24 hours. And international users are drooling for their release.

“This is what we have made out of 12000 years of humanity. We are bringing impossible dreams come to life” our 26-year old Co-Founder, Ankit, said with his gleaming eyes stuck on to the mobile attached to a battery pack, while I found him catching a Pigdey in the local park. “The best part of being a millennial is to enjoy this game while knowing how much this craze meant to you once. It’s not just the fun of Augmented Reality for us. It’s an experience and a journey that we were waiting to have since years.”

Something crazy has happened to the world this week. And it’s crazy-good. At least it seems to be more than just a hype, for now. While we hear about the hacks, robberies and accidents surfacing soon after the release, Pokemon Saga is bound to survive the test of time in coming days as it has for decades.

Pokemon Go Craze in Central Park

Pokemon Go has revived a generation which in turned has revived the brand and its company. If you still haven’t got your hands on the game, just make sure you do it soon. The world is embracing augmented reality (AR) and Pokemon Go is a cornerstone project in this direction.

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